ATTILA'S AMERICA'S REJECTS TOUR IN SCRANTON, PA

The Ritz Theatre (A first look for Rock Documented) in Scranton, Pa on Thursday, 3.27.2025 hosted The America’s Rejects Tour as Attila partied their way through the city. Josh Balz, local entrepreneur, formerly of Motionless In White and owner of this historic venue brings a uniquely tiered, theater styled event setup, almost like an indoor mini Red Rocks, to Northeast Pennsylvania. Brings me back to a time when concerts weren’t only held in stadiums and I really liked that inclusive vibe here. The newly renovated entertainment facility will have everyone in for an unforgettable night whether it be because of the history, horror stories or list of businesses that also call this theater home. You’re in for a real treat while visiting. Tattoo Parlor, 13^th Realm Tattoo, even held a flash event with artist related tattoos. Attila’s long list of support included Traverse The Abyss, Nathan James, Dealer, DED and Butcher Babies.

Traverse The Abyss kicked the night off with reminding fans of their EP “Momento Mori” debut show taking place at The Ritz Theater on April 25th, 2025. They followed by delivering a powerful set with plenty on and off-stage antics with members at one point exiting the stage, into the crowd and climbing the theaters wall ledges while continuing to play. They also climbed onto each other’s shoulders whilst playing. The perfect introduction to the night was for sure a fun one with a hometown twist.

Next up was LA’s, Nathan James who delivered a Nu Metal performance. Had the crowd singing along and doing back and forth chants. Their sets most interactive song was their mash up featuring Paleface Swiss “Secret Of The Shadows.” Drummer, Tommy The Villain could be found walking the front of the stage in between tracks to greet their fans and showing his appreciation to every one of them. They ended their performance with mentioning it was their frontman’s actual birthday and wanted to smash a cake with their upcoming album title (Haunted Mortician) scripted on the full size sheet cake in one lucky fans face. They quickly found a victim in the crowd who was more than willing to take a cake to the face, Steve Aoki style, in honor of his big day.

Third act of the night was Australia’s finest, Dealer. They had the crowd lively and the pit opened in no time to give them a big Northeast, Pennsylvania welcome. Their stage presence and interactions were top tier. No shoeys were done on stage but rumors had it they were familiar with doing them in the past. Their energy was so much fun with frontman Aidan Ellaz Holmes powerful vocals along with stage stomping had the audience in the palm of their hands. With songs like “Hyperreal Death Scene” and “Red Teeth” off of their 2024 album “New Order Of Mind” they had the crowd mesmerized and on their feet with an unforgettable performance. They were also found at their merch table after their set to express their gratitude to their fans and so everyone can snap a pic or ten with the humble hardcore Aussies.

Next act of the night was DED, American Nu Metal band from Tempe, Arizona. Made up of former members of Greeley Estate and Man Made Machine. Brought the crowd to their midway point of the show with hits like “FMFY” and even debuted their newest single “Until I Die” featuring Chris Motionless of Motionless In White (Scranton’s favorite locals.) Their band jumped onto this tour along with The Butcher Babies when Oceano abandoned their plans and as it may have seemed to be an odd addition, they certainly killed it on that stage and had the crowd roaring for more.

The highly anticipated main support of the night, Butcher Babies stunned the crowd with an electrifying performance. Front woman, Heidi Shephard beautifully delivered clean melodic vocals opening up with their fast paced “Backstreets of Tennessee.” The stage had transformed and the house lights were cut and they brought an impressive light show along with headbanging and windmilling involved onstage. It seemed as if their huge bellows ignited a fire below them as the set went on. Front woman, Heidi Shepherd, slowed things down after “King Pin” to humble the crowd with her story on struggles with suicide and how she too was a victim of her own demons. She thanked the fans for saving her life before singing their 2024 hit, “Sincerity.”

Attila was up next, out of Atlanta, Georgia. We were greeted with a dark stage performance coinciding with strobe lights flashing that had a wild effect on the ever moving mosh pit located front and center of the pit area (which started only 1 row back the entire night.) Opening the night with “Perdition” a hardcore intro off their 2019 album “Villain.” They called for high energy on this thirsty Thursday and for everyone who had work on Friday to call off and party hard with them. Most of their set was comprised of a mixture of music dating from 2011 to the most recent 2024 releases. Album, “About That Life” still remains a fan favorite from the band as they included three titles from that album “Middle Fingers Up,” “Party With The Devil” and the encore track “About That Life.”

Frontman, Chris Fronzak jokingly pointed out all the kids visible in the crowd were around 10 years old and expressed that their parents must have been partying hard to their 12 year old album “About That Life” which must be the reason why those kids were here today. Their party lifestyle mixed with a nu metal / metalcore influence delivers a powerful message that life is short and to have fun while we’re all here. Which is exactly what Scranton did. You could hear a lot of “Play Pizza!!” in the crowd, referring to their hilarious metal single “Pizza” from 2018 which sparked the bands biggest controversy amongst fans about whether pineapple belongs on pizza, or not.

On this night, you wouldn’t be hearing this hit song on their setlist for they already played it for their VIP crowd prior to the show. They also feature an item of the day on this tour to be bid on throughout the night. Which, on this night was a one-of-a-kind boogie board with America’s Rejects drawn onto it. Attila brought down the house and even came back with a 2 song encore closing out their set with “Proving Grounds.”

The America’s Rejects tour was not a tour to be taken lightly. I do believe the lineup was all over the place but, each band complimented one other by giving the audience something different every time it switched up. Each act played their roll with delivering raw energy and pure metal vibes to all attendees involved. If you got a chance to catch it, consider yourself lucky!